There are hands-on impressions of Valve's prototype "Steam Box" PCs on
Engadget,
The Seattle Times, and
The Verge, and there are separate articles on the new Steam Controller on
Engadget and
IGN (thanks nin). There are also impressions along the way of the nascent
SteamOS running this all. Here's a bit on the hardware crammed into a box "a
little bigger than an Xbox 360 and smaller than any gaming PC of its
ilk:"

The secret is actually quite simple, it turns out: Valve designed the
case so the parts can breathe individually. The CPU blows air out the top, the
power supply out the side, and the graphics card exhaust out back, and none
share any airspace within the case.

That might sound like common sense, but itís remarkably hard to find a case that
does so while still making it easy to drop components in. Here, the key
component responsible for dividing those three zones is a simple plastic shroud
which unscrews in a jiffy. The box we touched was already surprisingly cool and
quiet, but Valve's still tweaking the design: we saw Valve printing a couple of
the shrouds as we walked through its rapid prototyping lab.

Cutter wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 15:25:WTF would I ask for hardware guys to work on software? We have bloatware that's basically been unchanged since it's inception. It's still a buggy, broken mess and they have over 65 million accounts.

This is factually incorrect, Steam has gone through several revisions with dozens of new features added. There are aspects of it I think need improvement and Steam development is all over the place, sometimes quickly iterative and other times maddeningly slow. To say it's "bloatware thats basically unchanged since its inception" is completely absurd and untrue though.

They've got 40 guys out of 310 working on SteamOS/SteamBox, I don't see any problem with resource allocation and the desktop client will likely receive functionality upgrades as a result.

If you don't want Steam "bloat," switch to the already existing Small Mode. It becomes simply a list of your games with the options up top and uses 20-25MB of RAM. Compared to like Chrome, which has about 8 instances open for me and 30-80MB being used by each with only one damned tab open...

They have basically the same features. OGL might be a bit faster currently, but that's going to be contingent on how much time a developer puts into optimizing for a given API, and if there are any current driver issues.

The big difference is that OGL is a relative pain in the ass to code compared to D3D, which of course means there are fewer developers out there who have bothered learning OpenGL and transitioning over would be a pain when Direct3D is working just fine and there aren't many compelling reasons to pursue cross-platform PC support.

So, OGL is more than technically sufficient, it just has a barrier to adoption.

Cutter wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:10:How about getting the client up to date first? Remove the bloat, streamline it, make it faster, an offline mode that works, etc.

Yup, let's take the hardware guys and get them working on software. That'll do it!

WTF would I ask for hardware guys to work on software? We have bloatware that's basically been unchanged since it's inception. It's still a buggy, broken mess and they have over 65 million accounts. Tell me what other company could rest on their laurels with something like that. This is one major problem with Valve's style of management. The essential things that should have been nailed down long ago never get done because no one thinks it's "interesting" enough.

If they don't want to do it, farm it out. It's not like they can't throw money at it. Even Origin is a better client. If it wasn't for the fact it was EA I'd prefer to use it. Unfortunately there are no real challengers to Steam so they don't feel they have to do sweet FA.

"During times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Lastly, it looks like the prototype controller is 3D printed. See the striations on the button mechanisms? That's pretty cool, and if they could just print up new designs to try out, that gives me hope that the first gen will be solid out of the blocks.

ForgedReality wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:09:However, I've said it before: OpenGL just doesn't have the chops to compete with the likes of DirectX/Direct3D at this point. Hopefully this will bring the pressure required to finally bring OGL into the current gen.

Microsoft should be patting itself on the back for what appears to be a job well done.

DangerDog wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:18:Corsair Carbide Air 540, heck even my old Antec 280 case is chambered for the power supply and hard drives split from the motherboard / cpu / graphics card.

Maybe I read wrong, but it looks like the Steambox wants to separate everything so that it has its own separate airspace. The CPU and GPU generate a lot of heat, so it's a good idea to keep them separate at least. However, it can only get as cool as the surrounding air, so your comment about closing it up behind a glass door holds a lot of merit. I hope they're really up-front about how limited you'll be in terms of where you place the unit. I bet they'll need to plaster it with all kinds of disclaimers and stuff for the lesser technically-minded of us who are undoubtedly going to give this a shot.

SirKnight wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:56:

ForgedReality wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:09:However, I've said it before: OpenGL just doesn't have the chops to compete with the likes of DirectX/Direct3D at this point. Hopefully this will bring the pressure required to finally bring OGL into the current gen.

That is so untrue it's not even funny. As a a graphics programmer of around 15 years now, I'm just baffled that someone could possibly think that with all the easy to find resources that's out there.

Yeah? I don't know about you, but I'll find it difficult to lose a majority of the DX11 and PhysX features by gaming on an OpenGL platform... Claiming that this won't be an issue is misguided at best.

ForgedReality wrote on Nov 4, 2013, 14:09:However, I've said it before: OpenGL just doesn't have the chops to compete with the likes of DirectX/Direct3D at this point. Hopefully this will bring the pressure required to finally bring OGL into the current gen.

That is so untrue it's not even funny. As a a graphics programmer of around 15 years now, I'm just baffled that someone could possibly think that with all the easy to find resources that's out there.

I'm excited for the controller, even though it isn't going to completely replace my kb/m. I'm even more excited for the video streaming. I've messed with nvidia's shadow play a bit, and the output from it is fantastic. I'm assuming Steam will take advantage of the hardware encoder in the recent nvidia cards, and from what one of the articles said, streaming will be available to play with sooner than the controller or Steamboxes.

It's been a long time since there's been anything to truly be excited about, hardware-wise, on the pc. Steam Controllers, streaming boxes, and the Oculus Rift all coming in the same general timeframe...whee!

Lastly, it looks like the prototype controller is 3D printed. See the striations on the button mechanisms? That's pretty cool, and if they could just print up new designs to try out, that gives me hope that the first gen will be solid out of the blocks.